RIP Hyoe Inukai, survivor of the 1987 shooting at Asahi bureau

With every change of season, searing pain would flare in the right hand of Hyoe Inukai, a former Asahi Shimbun reporter who died Jan. 16 at age 73.

It was especially bad on frigid winter days, just like now, when lead pellets, lodged in his hand, caused excruciating nerve pain.

On the night of May 3, 1987, Inukai had returned from his reporting assignment and was sitting down to a sukiyaki dinner with his colleagues at The Asahi Shimbun's Hanshin Bureau, when a man in a ski mask barged in and started firing a shotgun.

Inukai was hit with numerous lead pellets, which resulted in losing his right hand pinkie and ring finger.